ecoFINISH aquaBRIGHT longterm review

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Brian - I have a question. I have an older gunite pool with plaster finish and want to get it resurfaced. I have been following this thread and doing my own research, I'm very interested in the AB product. My plaster is badly aged and worn/wearing away, it is down to the gunite in several areas and noticeable thin in others. What would be the best approach in this case. Would the AB installer just patch the areas where the plaster is completely gone? Also, you posted previously that AB is completely dependent on the surface it's applied to. Would it be problematic to apply AB to my 20 year old plaster? Should I consider getting a completely new application of plaster and then applying AB? I've had one contractor say that he would blast away my existing plaster and apply AB directly to the gunite, you mentioned previously that is not recommended. Thanks for any recommendations and insight.
 
You could apply it right to the gunite but that would probably entail a lot of grinding. So long as the majority of the plaster is still well adhered and won't require obscene amount of time to fix the imperfections, I don't see why it wouldn't work with your existing surface.

There really is no comparison with this finish on new plaster though.

Have you contacted Central Missouri Pools?
 
Thanks Brian. I have not contacted Central Missouri Pools, they are not really in my area. I have had some contact with Pool Pros, they are the ones that suggested applying AB to the gunite. I would not say the current plaster is well adhered. There is plaster dust always coming off in my auto-cleaner and in the filter cartridges, but that may not be an indication of general lack of adherence to the underlying gunite in the sense you mean. It sounds like your recommendation would be new plaster. I'm wondering if I should get a new application of relatively inexpensive plaster, as in not Pebble, and then apply AB over that.
 
Plain white plaster is fine. No need to waste the money on pebble and it would yield a very rough surface anyway.

I can't really make a recommendation one way or another on your pool without seeing it. You really can't tell until it's drained anyway.
 

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Does anyone have any experience with EcoDustrial used for pool decking? We have a textured concrete pool deck in a light tan color that after 10yrs is finally needing a resurface. We're looking at EcoFinish for our fiberglass pool so our installer is recommending it for the deck as well. Obviously the cost is substantially more than a regular paint/seal so what are the advantages? Will it get hot? Will it get slippery? Can you pressure wash it to clean it? Unsure about the colors too. I love our current deck light tan color, but the tan for EcoDustrial on the EcoFinish website does not look so tan to me. We want a more natural look so it's been recommended we go with Sahara Sand for the pool and Sandstone for the pool deck. Little worried about the Sandstone looking like wet mud though. Anyway, any info is much appreciated!
 
To my knowledge the EcoDustrial product is no different that AquaBright and PolyFibro so you should be able to use any color of your choosing. Brilliant marketing strategy :roll:

I've seen it used a few times on decks and it does provide a nice surface. Keep in mind that if you do go this route you'll have to remove the existing coating down to bare concrete - probably a combination of sandblasting and grinding which isn't going to be cheap.
 
Did something happen to the ecofinish company? My pool company doesn't do AB so I found one in Tucson that comes down here for work, but he's confusing me. He said the aquabright can't be installed on new plaster, the company owner (the one in Tucson, not ecofinish itself) won't allow it for liability reasons. However had I called and asked for an ecofinish applied to my new plaster he'd have no problems talking to me about doing that. I thought aquabright was one of a few finishes made by the ecofinish company, and even the website is ecofinish.com/aquabright. As I'm in a small town I really don't have a lot of other options for getting the finish I really want. Thanks in advance anyone who can shed some light and maybe he's confused and hasn't figured it out yet. He's currently calling his manager trying to help me get a quote even tho "I'm not supposed to talk to you about this since you said specifically Aquabright"...:confused:
 
Something's off with the guy or the company. He got back to me and made a point of saying ecofinish, and he couldn't say aquabright, even tho it's on the product's website, they are still not allowed to say aquabright. He also gave me a quote of $11 per square foot of surface area, so my 14,000 gallon pool would cost a whopping $10,000 to install the AB after it's been freshly plastered. If a chip out and replaster quote is $6000 why on earth is just adding the aquabright going to cost so much more when it's hardly as much work for these people. Unfortunately they are the only installers allowed in AZ for the next 5 years.
 
Holiday said:
Something's off with the guy or the company. He got back to me and made a point of saying ecofinish, and he couldn't say aquabright, even tho it's on the product's website, they are still not allowed to say aquabright. He also gave me a quote of $11 per square foot of surface area, so my 14,000 gallon pool would cost a whopping $10,000 to install the AB after it's been freshly plastered. If a chip out and replaster quote is $6000 why on earth is just adding the aquabright going to cost so much more when it's hardly as much work for these people. Unfortunately they are the only installers allowed in AZ for the next 5 years.
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That stinks.

Brian can certainly answer thisxwith more detail and company specific info as he is an installer but it all comes down to labor. A 5-Man crew can plaster 2-3 pools per day. An AB pool, if done with meticulous care, requires 2-3 days to complete and can eat up half a crew of guys (2-3 guys). So if you have to sacrifice that much labor and time for one pool, it’s going to cost the customer more. It’s sad that many installers will choose to not use existing plaster but I understand it - it looks worse than fresh plaster and inevitably leads to unhappy/angry customers.

It’s a great surface material but the parent company keeps the market restricted to make it profitable and there’s zero competition. So it’s monopoly rules.
 

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